[ti:Abandoned Village Is a Reminder of Fast-changing UAE]
[al:Arts and Culture]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2023-09-02]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]About an hour's drive from the tall buildings of Dubai is an empty village in the sands of the United Arab Emirates. 
[00:12.20]It stands as a reminder of how fast the Middle Eastern country is changing.
[00:19.20]Built in the 1970s, the village of al-Ghuraifa was left empty twenty years later.
[00:27.78]Oil wealth has turned the UAE, home to the cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, into an international center of commerce and tourism.
[00:41.24]In recent years, the empty village near the town of al-Madam in the Sharjah emirate has become more popular with visitors.
[00:53.08]The village, made up of two rows of homes and a religious center, "can teach us a lot of the modern history of the UAE," said Ahmad Sukkar of the University of Sharjah. 
[01:09.55]Sukkar is part of a team studying the area.
[01:14.04]Al-Ghuraifa was built as part of a public housing project after the 1971 establishment of the United Arab Emirates, a group of seven sheikhdoms.
[01:28.38]The discovery of oil 13 years earlier was just starting to reshape the country.
[01:36.98]The village housed around 100 members of the al-Ketbi tribe, Sukkar said. 
[01:44.95]They were one of several Bedouin groups that until then had led a semi-nomadic existence. 
[01:52.82]They raised animals, traveled among the desert oases and visited Dubai and Abu Dhabi when they were small towns.
[02:04.09]The modern cement houses were built with local details to ease the change to settled life. 
[02:11.59]The inside walls were brightly colored, and some had mosaics.
[02:18.35]The homes also had spaces where village leaders could gather locals for meetings.
[02:25.19]One house had special paper known as wallpaper showing a land with green plants and trees - a big difference from the sandy environment outside.
[02:39.48]It is unclear what exactly caused people to leave just twenty years after the homes were built.
[02:46.93]Some say that they were driven away by evil spirits. 
[02:51.04]But Sukkar says it is more likely that people left to seek a better life in the UAE's fast-growing cities.
[03:01.42]The village had limited electricity and water, and was often hit by sandstorms.
[03:08.48]Families would have also had to deal with long traveling times across the desert to reach government jobs and schools in Dubai.
[03:20.28]Now, the desert is slowly taking back the village. 
[03:24.76]Sand has blown into the homes. 
[03:27.80]Only the religious center, or mosque, remains as it was, thanks to regular cleaning by workers from nearby al-Madam.
[03:40.00]Some descendants of the camel-mounted Bedouin who once traveled the desert sands still live in the Emirates' rural areas. 
[03:51.33]However, many now live in cities with tall buildings, large shopping centers, and modern roads.
[04:00.63]Foreign nationals make up the majority of the UAE's population, and some have taken an interest in its history.
[04:11.08]It is also a place for them to record music videos and social media posts. 
[04:17.88]On a recent day, groups of visitors walked through the abandoned village.
[04:24.37]"I wonder why they left," said Nitin Panchal, an Indian living in the UAE.
[04:31.89]"Could it be a genie," could it be "black magic?" Panchal asked. "We'll never know."
[04:39.33]The local government recently installed fencing along with a security gate, waste containers and a parking lot.
[04:48.87]Officials made the changes because past visitors had caused damage to the village.
[04:56.62]The new measures have taken some of the mystery from the village.
[05:01.77]Danny Booth is from the Isle of Man, a British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea. 
[05:09.25]He said he had decided to "come and have a look before things start to change here."
[05:16.05]"Sometimes these places are better left undisturbed, as they lose their charm when they become crowded," he said.
[05:25.23]I'm John Russell.